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My non-binary birth certificate a victory for trans community

By Joshua M. FergusonOpinion

Tues., May 8, 2018

Almost one year ago, on May 12, 2017, I walked into the central Service Ontario office in Toronto to apply for my non-binary birth certificate. I had no idea about the challenges and the emotional roller-coaster that faced me.

After Ontario delayed my application, and a subsequent human rights application, finally, I now have my non-binary birth certificate. It’s a victory for me. It’s victory for our community.

Joshua M. Ferguson is a non-binary trans (they/them) filmmaker, writer and advocate who received Ontario’s first non-binary birth certificate.

After years of having the system define me, that has now changed. With the new Service Ontario policy for birth certificates, people in the province now have a choice beyond male and female on their birth certificates and it illustrates that non-binary people exist — we are Ontarians and we are Canadians.

The province has made history by becoming the first jurisdiction in the world to implement a twofold policy for birth certificates.

Birth certificates are now more inclusive. The policy achieves a respectful balance by recognizing non-binary people who want official sex markers, trans and non-trans people who don’t want any sex markers at all and the men, women and children, who do not want these policy changes to affect their birth certificates.

To be clear, on the birth certificates of newborn children, parents will still be able to designate M, F or now an X (especially for the 1 in 1,500 babies born intersex), or they can choose not to list the sex designation of their child at all — allowing their child to one day self-determine their gender identity. The policy will have zero impact on the majority of Ontarians who want their birth certificates to stay the same.

Every time a trans person is forced to present a piece of ID designating incorrect sex markers, it exposes us to anxiety and distress because it is a vital part of our existence in society.

Commonplace experiences, such as travelling through airports, attending school and picking-up parcels, can turn into stressful and painful events for trans people when we are forced to present personal information that does not match who we are.

Frequently, when I present my ID with an M or Male listed, the postal worker, bank teller, airport employee looks at me like there is something wrong with me because my ID doesn’t match what I look like. These situations can range from stares to questioning the validity of my ID and therefore my existence.

Ontario’s new policy will save lives.

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It will have a profound positive impact on the lives of trans people. It will give people a choice for their birth certificates and it will give hope to trans people across the country who still live in provinces with governments that fail to recognize who they are, especially people who are neither men nor women.

In part, motivating a policy that officially recognizes non-binary people in Ontario has become one of my proudest moments. I was tormented as a gender nonconforming child, teenager and young adult at the hands of people who verbally harassed and physically assaulted me. I don’t want other children to grow up feeling the sting of another person’s fist or the sharp dehumanizing verbal abuse because their gender identity or expression isn’t officially recognized and protected on government issued ID.

Research from the University of Texas emphasizes that trans youth have suicidal thoughts at twice the rate of their peers, and one 1-out-of-3 trans youth have considered suicide.

The National Centre for Transgender Equality in the U.S. states: “gender incongruent ID exposes people to a range of negative outcomes, from denial of employment, housing and public benefits to harassment and physical violence.”

Trans Pulse at Western University “found a significant decrease in suicide risk among those who had ID documents matching their expressed gender. Having proper ID was found to have the potential to prevent 90 in 1,000 trans people from seriously considering suicide.”

What matters is that people value and respect each other even if we don’t agree. To elevate basic dignity for one another is the power of our shared humanity.

Dr. Joshua M. Ferguson (Ph.D) is a non-binary trans (they/them) filmmaker, writer and advocate born in Brantford and raised in Napanee. Their memoir Me, Myself, They will be published by House of Anansi in 2019.

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